Francis de Sales wrote his first book in 1597, at the request of his fellow missionaries in the Chablais. Entitled A Short Meditation on the Apostles’ Creed, it was meant to counteract the nonsense being proclaimed about catholic teaching by a Calvinist minister. His second book, published in l600, was called Defence of the Standard of the Holy Cross. Bishop Granier asked him to write it. It was a reply to a pamphlet by a Calvinist minister against honouring wayside crosses.
Francis was consecrated Bishop on 8th December 1602. As Bishop, he thought of his pastoral apostolate in terms of visiting his people, preaching, hearing confessions and even teaching Catechism. Francis’ third book was the Introduction to the Devout Life. He did not plan to write it. It developed from his writings and letters to persons who had sought spiritual guidance from him. He was urged to put together this material as a book by his Jesuit spiritual director. He did so and published the book towards the end of l608.
The one book that Francis began to write of his own accord, already from l606, was published as A Treatise on the Love of God only in l6l6. In a letter, dated 11th February l607, Bishop Francis shares with Madame de Chantal the secret that he has begun writing the book. But in a letter to her of 16th January 1610, nearly three years later, he says, “I have not been able to take up work again on the book The Love of God; as I have been constantly busy". And three weeks later he tells her, “I am going to take up the book on The Love of God and I shall try to write as much on my heart as I shall on paper." Writing to his printer, Pierre Rigaud, on 14th December l6l0, Francis says, “It is beyond my power to complete the Treatise on the Love of God within a short time. This is because my continual occupations leave me little free time, even though I am careful not to lose a single moment." In a letter to Fr.Nicolas de Soulfour, Oratorian, of 10th January l6l4, Francis mentions the difficulty he is facing in completing the book, “Alas! I assure you, dear Father, that I am under so much pressure from business, or rather from interruptions, that I can with difficulty snatch a quarter of an hour now and then for these spiritual writings."
In a letter of 7th November 1614 to Madame de la Flech- ere, Francis says, “The book on The Love of God is finished. But it has to be rewritten many times before it can be sent for publication." The work of getting the manuscript ready for the printer made great demands on Francis. In a letter of 5th March l6l5 to Mother de Chantal he says, “I am doing what I can for the book. Believe me, it is a very great martyrdom to be unable to find the necessary time. Nevertheless, I am making good progress." It was only towards March l6l6 that the printer received the manuscript, and the Treatise on the Love of God was finally published on 31st July l6l6.
E.K.Sanders, an Anglican Protestant, gives us in his biography of St.Francis de Sales[1] a remarkable appraisal of The Love of God and of its author: “The defects which make it difficult reading at the present time might not have taken their exaggerated form if he had a period of unbroken leisure to bring an undistracted mind to bear on its revision... Francis de Sales had knowledge and insight and mastery of style, but time, not less essential for the bearing of unblemished fruit, was part of the surrender he had made to the needs of his needy diocese."
On the Tenth Anniversary of his consecration as Bishop, Francis wrote as follows to Mother de Chantal: “God took me from myself to take me to Himself and then to give me to the people." Hence writing, even The Love of God, took second place to his giving loving attention to his people to help them grow in genuine love for God and for others, In spite of the difficult circumstances in which St.Francis de Sales wrote The Love of God, it is an outstanding book. The English Benedictine, Abbot John Chapman, calls it “the greatest work of genius in theology since St. Thomas Aquinas".
Fr. Armind Nazareth, msfs
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[1]S.P.C.K., London, 1928, p.129